I sat by Aleric's bed in the Golden Blade's hospital, having waited a few hours now for him to wake up.Much to my relief, the doctors said he would make a full recovery despite everything that had happened. They successfully managed to remove the knife and seal him up until his body's natural healing ability could kick in.Any minute now he would be waking up... and that ended up being exactly the case.He opened his eyes slowly, looking around the room with eyelids still heavy, until he finally saw me."Aria...?" he mumbled weakly."I'm here," I replied, moving a bit closer.I guess the nickname was staying and I still wasn't sure how to feel about it."What happened...?"I realised he must have had some drugs left in his system as he sounded a bit out of it all still."It was a silver knife," I explained. "You're lucky to be alive."He just nodded drowsily, settling back into the bed again."You realise

"...What?"I dropped my hands instantly and moved backwards out of his arms."Feelings for me? Like friendship? Because we had always been friends in my mind, Cai. It was you who denied it, remember?"My chest was beating so hard that I felt like I was about to faint.He walked towards me, immediately closing the space I'd just made between us, and cupped my face in his hand to make me look up at him. I felt frozen in place staring up into his eyes that appeared to be completely serious."You know what I meant, Aria," was all he said to clarify.I felt my mind go completely blank as he held my gaze, having been taken completely off-guard by his sudden confession. But finally, after a few moments, reality kicked in.I pushed my way backwards again, confusion slowly registering over everything he'd just said.How could that even be possible? If that was true, then why would he have waited so long to tell me? Why keep it from me f

Ever since Aleric and I had been attacked by rogues at the Golden Blade pack, we had been assisting with the investigation into what had actually happened.The whole thing had seemed so weirdly targeted. Why did they decide to come out of hiding? Was it a purposeful attack on Aleric and I? And, most importantly, had someone leaked information since they knew we would be there?Needless to say, the entire Winter Mist was furious about the whole thing and had demanded answers that the Golden Blade didn't have. They were just as confused by the entire ordeal as we were. Because of that, they were forced to cooperate with us during our investigation; much to their displeasure, I was sure.It had been months since we'd had any leads though. There also hadn't been any trace of a camp on their territory, making us believe they probably had no intention of staying in the area for long when they attacked. This was news that only made the whole thing even more worrisome.

Now it was my turn to drop my cutlery, almost choking on my food."I'm sorry? No. I did not have feelings for Cai," I said, still coughing a little. I took a sip of water to clear my throat. "It was you who had feelings for Cai, remember? And Cai doesn't have feelings for me either... unless you're talking about the kind of feelings that find him inside a girl's skirt for a day.""Bullshit, Aria!"I quickly looked up to meet Myra's fiery eyes. It was the first time I'd ever heard her swear or even sound so angry. I was completely taken aback."Myra...?"She closed her eyes and composed herself for a second. "Sorry, sometimes I think you've rubbed off on me a little too much."My lip twitched in a smile. It was nice to see Myra standing up for herself so confidently for once... even if she was passionate about the wrong thing in this case."Look, I didn't have feelings for Cai," she stressed. "You

She was dead. Myra was dead. The words kept repeating themselves in my head but I was struggling to come to terms with it being real. Unfortunately, I had only remained unconscious for a few minutes before Aleric had managed to wake me up. I found myself on the couch inside and answered all of his questions as best I could, though albeit very robotically. By the time I had finished describing where Myra was and her current state, Aleric had quickly left to go get the patrol team scouring the area for rogues. I told him about my dagger that was used, the one from the cave I'd left behind, and even about Thea. What she looked like, where the two of them had been, and that I'd told Myra to talk to her. No one really listened to me after I'd mentioned the rogue knife though. They all immediately went on to high alert mainly looking for them, not Thea. Everyone had thought since my missing dagger was used, that it was the rogues trying to